


Task Force Secrets

by ashtraythief



Series: Underneath 'verse [11]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, Alternative Universe - FBI, M/M, POV Outsider, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 17:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16000238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtraythief/pseuds/ashtraythief
Summary: Special Agents Morgan and Tal figure out which of the Task Force members is giving information to Jared. Then, they have an usettling talk about Jensen.





	Task Force Secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Somer (somersault_j)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/somersault_j/gifts).



> Set a few weeks after Family Matters. This is just a little Task Force intermission to set up the next few timestamps. I’m planning three that sort of go together and get Jared and Jensen where they need to be so I can finally deal with The End.
> 
> Happy Birthday, Somer! This is not what we talked about but it's not completely finished and it would be kinda weird posting your auction fic for your birthday, but in honor of the same it felt like a good idea to post this background story that will sort of, kinda, set up up what will happen next :)
> 
> Many, many thanks to ilikaicalie for being the most patient and wonderful beta!

 

Outside, the rain of a summer storm was beating against the windows. Inside, it was quiet. It was late; everyone had gone home. Everyone but Assistant Director Jeff Morgan and Special Agent Alona Tal. They were sitting in the task force’s meeting room and Jeff had gotten out the whiskey to spike the coffees Alona had made.

Jeff put a cup in front of Alona and then grabbed his own. “What was it you wanted to talk about?”

Alona gave him a victorious grin. “I finally figured out who’s giving info to Padalecki.”

“What?”

They’d suspected a mole in the task force for a while now. They’d dug into every member without any results. Last year, they’d actively tried to flush out whoever was in Padalecki’s pocket. Jeff had held closed door meetings with every team on the task force and had told all of them the same story: one of Padalecki’s people was prepared to roll on their boss. But Jeff had given all of them a different name. Whoever Padalecki interrogated, or killed, would lead them straight back to their traitor. Unfortunately, Padalecki hadn’t taken the bait. Jeff didn’t know if Padalecki’s interrogation of his people was just really sneaky or if he’d seen through their game, but their plan had backfired. Ackles had confirmed that Padalecki had figured out their play and it hadn’t done more than send Padalecki into a fit of anger.

Jeff and Alona had gone on to investigate the task force members even more closely, and Jeff hadn’t asked Alona what methods she was employing.

They had checked out all the task force members’ financials several times but found nothing irregular. No unexplained cars or vacations, no extravagant spending, nothing. Padalecki had to make it worth their while somehow but there was no money trail. They’d considered favors too but had come up with nothing. They’d watched each member closely, only given information out selectively, and nothing. Jeff had worked only with a few people on the attempts to take down Murray and Collins and still nothing. Whoever the mole was, they were very good. Jeff had ruled out a few people on gut feeling alone, like Whitfield and Rhodes but that was about it.

Alona leaned back in the chair, her feet stretched out on the conference table. “I went back to the favors.”

“But we checked,” Jeff said exasperatedly. “No one moved to a better house. No elderly parents got places in better homes.”

Wester’s father was in a care facility but it was the same one he’d been in for five years. Detective Sanford was the only one with a kid in college but that was paid for by a wrestling scholarship. The information wasn't in the bureau's legal files, but ever since Simon had died they had both agreed that they’d never get Padalecki if they played by the rules.

On her laptop, Alona pulled up the picture of a kid. He was wearing thick glasses and grinning into the camera. Jeff wasn’t good with children but he estimated this kid was somewhere between eight and ten.

“Did you know Agent Blair has a son?”

Jeff nodded slowly. “I think she mentioned him once or twice.”

“I didn’t look closer at her,” Alona said, “because her husband died a couple of years ago and she’s still paying off the hospital bills, barely getting by. If anyone would need bribe money, it’s her. And she’s definitely not taking any. But her son…”

“What about him?”

“He’s at Rainbow Valley Academy.”

The name meant nothing to Jeff and his expression told Alona as much because she explained. “It’s the best private school in the city for special needs children. With a waitlist a mile long.”

“Are you sure Padalecki helped with that?”

Alona nodded. “Her son got accepted on a scholarship that was awarded for the first time that year and the headmistress is on the board of the Contemporary Art Museum that Padalecki frequently loans paintings to.”

Well. Jeff had never seriously considered Agent Blair. She was a good agent even though her record paled in contrast to Rhodes or Whitfield. But she was a stickler for the rules and worked hard. She hadn’t seemed like someone to take the easy way out. Then again, just because her kid was getting the carrot didn’t mean Padalecki hadn’t lorded the stick over her too. Parents did crazy things when their child’s life was threatened.

Jeff leaned back. “Not to step on your toes but how did you miss that?”

Alona gave him a mean look. “We only looked at stuff that happened _after_ we created the task force. But Blair’s son was admitted two weeks after Blair was partnered with Rhodes, a whole year before we even created the task force.”

Jeff stroked his beard. “So he was just looking for a high level source in the bureau and hitched his wagon to the rising star's partner.”

Alona snorted. “And he got lucky too, the bastard.”

“Fuck.”

Alona echoed his feeling.

For a while they sat in silence. Even though this was a victory, Jeff felt nothing but heavy dread.

“We can use it,” Alona finally said. “Feed him false information.”

Jeff shook his head. “That’s a one time play and I don’t think we would get results worth it.”

“You want to arrest her?”

“With what proof?” Jeff asked bitterly. “No, we have to get some evidence before we make a move.”

“Do we clue Rhodes in on it?”

Jeff nodded. “Yeah. She’ll need to handle Blair for us.”

“We need to be careful how we tread here, otherwise Blair’s kid will grow up without both parents,” Alona said.

“He’ll have to either way.” Jeff was already hating this. “When Padalecki finds out he’ll kill her to keep her from talking and if we get her, she’ll go to jail for a really long time.”

“We could offer her a spot in witsec.”

“Do you really think she knows enough for the DA to agree to a deal?”

“Shit,” Alona said with feeling. “But we gotta try. We can’t be picky with our options here. If she wears a wire...”

Jeff snorted. “Padalecki’s people are too careful for that. And she might clue them in on purpose. No, we’ll put surveillance on her, bug her place.”

Alona gave Jeff a level look. “We don’t have enough for a warrant.”

“We don’t,” Jeff said evenly. “I’ll call in some favors for the surveillance and well, we’re not going to use the bugs for a trial in court. But we need to know how they communicate.”

Alona pursed her lips. “And if we don’t get anything? I mean, how long do you want to sit on this? If we keep her out of the loop for too long, she’ll catch on.”

Morgan took a long drag from his coffee. “Let’s watch her for a few weeks and keep the wire option as a last resort.”

This investigation was such a shit show. He wouldn’t be surprised if he went completely gray by the end of the year.

”Any news from Ackles?” Alona asked.

Jeff’s dark mood turned darker. “You mean, after he ditched his job to go on vacation? No. He’s right, our great plan was maybe not so great.”

“He’s given us some good stuff,” Alona said. “We just need more.”

Jeff hummed. He’d been considering more drastic measures recently but they were a little more risky. But they wouldn’t get anywhere if Ackles didn’t take more risks.

Jeff was just about to bring up his idea when Alona started spreading a bunch of surveillance pics out on the table that Whitfield and Evans had brought to the meeting.

Padalecki and Ackles eating at an Italian restaurant. Ackles was laughing at something Padalecki said, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Padalecki and Ackles leaving the restaurant, Ackles going up on his tiptoes to kiss Padalecki.

Ackles laughing again as Padalecki put an arm around his shoulder and led him to the car with a fond smile.

“He really is very good,” Alona said slowly, and Jeff knew that she was asking a question.

“No one’s that good,” Jeff said heavily.

She looked up sharply. “Then we have to pull him out.”

“He’ll still deliver Padalecki,” Morgan said. “Ackles might have feelings, but he’s not a traitor. Besides, it’s not like he has anywhere else to go.”

Alona shot him a hard look. “If you leave him in there for much longer, in his state, you’ll break him. If he can’t differentiate between himself and Campbell anymore...”

“Tell me we have another choice,” Jeff said. “You said it yourself, we can’t be picky.”

Alona stayed quiet.

“Do you think I like this?” Jeff bit out. He didn’t want to snap at Alona because god knew this wasn’t her fault but what else was there to do?

“We have nothing else. Right now, Ackles is the only one who can get us good info and he’s delivering. Ackles can’t draw the line between pretend and reality?” Jeff stabbed a finger at Padalecki’s besotted smile. “Well, Padalecki is in love. If we set this up right, he’ll make a mistake to save Campbell and then we got him.”

“And if you break Ackles in the process?”

“He can quit anytime he wants,” Jeff said but they both knew Ackles wouldn’t. They’d read his psyche profile. Ackles wasn’t a quitter.

“Then let’s at least speed this up.” Alona’s voice was hard. “What’s your play?”

“We’re going to go after Abel. I looked into his brother’s prison situation and we can definitely use that.”

Alona didn’t look convinced. “Nothing’s going to stop Padalecki from making new connections. We know he protects his people.”

“We’ve got to try.”

“What about Agent Alba?” Alona asked

They had sent in another agent as a drug smuggler but Jeff already knew that would be a dead end. She’d never make it to Padalecki.

Jeff rubbed his beard. “I’m hoping she’s going to be able to give us Murray at some point but I’m pretty sure it’s going to stop there. Right now, she’s still working with Qualls, and he might be a weak link but he’s loyal.”

“I told you the in with Qualls was stupid.” Alona made a face. “I doubt he’s met Padalecki more than once and even his contact with Murray is pretty irregular.”

Jeff dragged a hand over his face. “Yeah, well it was the best we could do. But you’re right, which is why we’re going to push Ackles.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I think it’s time Jensen Campbell got arrested,” Jeff said darkly.

Alona leaned back thoughtfully. “You want to bring in Agent DeKay from New York?”

Jeff nodded. “He’s contacted me twice already for permission to interview Campbell. I told him Campbell’s off limits due to the ongoing task force investigation but I think we should bring him in for this. He’s one of the bureau’s best white collar agents.”

“You plan to enlighten DeKay or are you going to play him too?”

“No one can know,” Jeff said. “But we’ll work it together with DeKay. He gets access to Campbell and in exchange we’re allowed to use him as a pressure point on Padalecki. We’ll find one of Campbell’s partners who’s willing to roll and when Padalecki goes after him to save Campbell from jail, we’ll get him.”

“That’s going to take some time to set up right. I’ll talk to Ackles.”

“You will not.” Jeff emptied his cup, welcoming the slight burn of the whiskey. “We’ll set it up, put everything in place. The less Ackles knows, the easier it will be for him to sell it.”

Alona leveled him with a hard look. “I don’t like it.”

Jeff stood. “Neither do I. But we need to get this right.” Jeff straightened out his tie. “But first, we’re going to try with Abel. If we can shake Padalecki up a bit, I think that would be helpful.”

“Fine. But I’ll go through Ackles’ break-ins, see if there’s one that’ll work.”

“Otherwise you’ll have to set him up.” Jeff fixed her with a hard stare.

Alona’s mouth thinned. “If Padalecki doesn’t protect him, we’re going to lose our best asset.”

Jeff pushed the pictures towards her. “I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

She stared down at the one where Ackles was just turning away after he’d given Padalecki a kiss. The look on Padalecki’s face was a mixture of hunger and adoration. But Alona’s slim index finger tapped Ackles’ face. He was smiling, careless and warm.

“We have everything to worry about.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can come find me on tumblr [here](http://ashtraythief.tumblr.com/).


End file.
